บท 6: The Chosen one

POV: Tarnished

"Ah… Ah… my legs, they can't hold me any longer…"

"Just why did Her Majesty do this for us? We didn't deserve this…"

My sword, my honor, my life and will belong to them. I fought with my life in the war against the giants and saw the glory of Lord Godfrey slaying the fire giants, making them extinct. But even Lord Godfrey was not spared; he was banished from the Lands Between, and after some time, I was too.

Ah… I remember now. After I was banished, I went to find Lord Godfrey, and after years of searching, I found him, but he was dead. A sword penetrated his stomach, arrows stuck in his body, his fearsome lion dead beside him. Even now, I question myself—just how did Lord Godfrey die? Who had the strength to kill him?

Seeing Lord Godfrey in this state, I was scared. I prayed for forgiveness for any sins or reasons that I was banished. But no answer came. I was devastated and searched for a way to not be killed like Lord Godfrey. And the only way to not be killed by someone or something is to be stronger than it.

So I trained in any weapon I could find. The sad thing is, I can't use my holy magic, and it's the only magic I know. So I trained for days, weeks, years, decades, until I mastered all of them.

In these lands, there is no food, so many resorted to killing others for their food or eating each other like savages—not that I am any different.

BAM! The sound of me falling to the ground echoes everywhere.

"Ah, I haven't eaten in what, a year? No wonder I can't move my body… hahaha…"

…

"I… I don't want to die. Please, anyone help me."

Maybe Her Majesty or the Greater Will will hear me this time.

"Oh Queen Marika, your loyal knight asks you to forgive him. Oh Greater Will, your faithful servant wishes to end his misery."

…

"Nothing happened. Like FUCKING ALWAYS!"

My eyes started to become tired. I knew death was closer to me, so I embraced it. What else could I do?

Closing my eyes for the last time, never to open them again, what I felt was hatred. Hatred for myself, for letting people control my life.

I felt it… Death, the ultimate end of all things.

POV: Third Person

In a place where nothing lives, a corpse lay on the ground. A small shard of light moved toward the corpse, touching its hand and making it shiver. The corpse awakened from its eternal sleep, doing what was said to be impossible.

The corpse half stood up, and in front of it, a blinding light came, illuminating the dark land. The light, now gone, took the corpse with it. The land returned to its original state of darkness and silence.

POV: Tarnished

Ah fuck, where the hell did that light come from?

After two minutes of blindness, my eyes started recovering, and I could see again.

Where am I? No, the real question is why am I still alive?

I'm sure that I died, so how can I feel my heart beating?

Looking around, I saw some broken benches and a dead body. Seeing nothing else, I walked toward it. In the hands of the corpse was a paper. Taking it from the corpse, I opened it and found a message.

"Though the path be broken and uncertain, claim your place as Elden Lord!"

Elden Lord?! No… no way. Looking to my left, I saw the door, so I quickly went toward it, hoping to see the Erdtree and the Lands Between.

Opening the door with anticipation, wishing this not to be a dream, I walked out of the church. Looking to the left, I saw it—the Erdtree…

Walking forward, almost falling from the edge, I took a left and went down the stairs and across the bridge. I went inside through the doorway and saw Her Majesty's statue.

"I'm really in the Lands Between. I prayed for a time like this."

Walking forward to the statue, I saw something jumping from behind it. The thing was a monster with a child's face, a lot of hands, and three legs. On its right side were two hands, each wielding a sword, and on its left side, it had a big shield.

The monster screamed and started attacking me, so I unsheathed my sword and dodged to the left, quickly slashing the back hand that wielded a sword. The monster screamed in agony as black blood flowed from the missing hand.

I looked at my sword with a confused expression. "Why am I so weak? I clearly aimed for the head, but I wasn't fast enough to slice it."

I quickly returned my focus to the monster, which looked at me with killing intent in its eyes. The monster jumped high, its sword pointed down at me. I dodged to the left again, but the monster seemed to know that I would dodge left, as it quickly turned its sword to where I was going.

Seeing this, I quickly dodged backward, escaping the sword by an inch. The monster attacked me, and I dodged every time.

"His shield is annoying. Every time I want to cut its head, it blocks. I need to find another way."

The monster, seemingly angry at me, jumped into the air again, pointing its sword at me. A smirk came to my mouth as I dodged to the left. The monster did the same as last time.

As its sword came at me, I quickly slid and took my sword upward, penetrating its chest. I didn't stop, continuing to slide as the sword cut the chest toward the stomach, causing organs and blood to spill from its body. The monster, now without a heart and other organs, fell down dead.

"Am I really using tactics against this weak monster? Where did my strength go?!"

Looking at my sword, which was now broken, I sighed. I threw the sword away and took the two swords the monster had used. Walking to the doorway, which was blocked before by a gold and black fog, I looked back at Queen Marika's statue without saying anything. I looked forward at nothing.

"What?! There's nothing—it's just a dead end!" I walked forward to the edge, but when I reached it, it broke, and I was falling.

"Huh? Wait! No, no, no!! I just came to the Lands Between—I don't want to die again!!"